Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross noscope with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Call of Duty has become emblematic of AAA bloat. Podcasts like ours tend to dismiss it out of hand as the poster child for a kind of game that hasn't just run out of ideas, but refuses to be reflective about the ideas it does have. It could be argued that it all began here. However, it's more complicated than that. Call of Duty 4 is a perfectly fine shooter with moments that really stand out. Moreover, it's a game that has heart, from a series that notoriously lacks it.